2014 Exhibitions

18 January – 27 April 2014

This major survey will focus on the past decade of the artist’s practice. Mellor’s Indigenous heritage informs his art, which considers Australia’s colonial legacy. Born at Mackay, Queensland, in 1971 he maintains strong links with his mother’s Country on the Atherton Tablelands, Far North Queensland.

The exhibition is the first to consider in depth how Mellor has contributed to contemporary Australian art, and will encourage engagement with the nation’s shared and contested histories through core themes. It will bring together key works from public collections, including Australian Museum, National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of South Australia, Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Bathurst Regional Gallery, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, The University of Queensland and private collections.

Curator: Maudie Palmer AO; Coordinating Curator: Samantha Littley

Publication

Public Programs

In association with the exhibition Danie Mellor: Exotic Lies and Sacred Ties, this panel discussion considers contemporary Indigenous cultural practice and reflects on our understanding of the past. How do audiences engage with the narrative of contemporary Indigenous art? Is there a shared dialogue that intersects with other forms of contemporary Indigenous creative expression? Please join panellists Wesley Enoch, Bruce McLean, Danie Mellor and chair Rhianna Patrick as they explore these issues and offer their insights.

Saturday 1 February 2.00pm – 3.00pmBefore the opening, learn more about the exhibition with Danie Mellor and curator Maudie Palmer AO

1 March – 18 May 2014

No place brings together four international artists who investigate notions of place, working within the realm of constructed photography in both physical and digital studios. The exhibition includes the work of James Casebere (USA), Giacomo Costa (Italy), Yao Lu (China) and Lori Nix (USA). Each artist considers their environs, combining utopian and dystopian views that both reminisce on the past and forewarn of the future.

Media

Opening

eX de MediciIsaac and Ishmael 2007
watercolour on paper
Private collection, MelbourneReproduced courtesy of the artist and Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney

10 May – 7 September 2014

Conflict: Contemporary responses to war reflects on the world altering events of September 11 2001, and explores art made around the theme of war in the years since. The exhibition takes a wide-ranging view, considering conflict on a global scale, and more localised struggles. It addresses, for instance, the historical conflicts that accompanied colonisation, and continue to affect present generations. Memorials and commemoration, and the machinery and technology of war are also examined.

Media

Public Program

Contemporary War Film ProgramSaturday 16 August 2014 10.30am - 4:00pmThis program offers audiences an opportunity to engage with the diverse and compelling genre of the contemporary war film. Curated by John Edmond, PhD candidate in The University of Queensland’s School of English, Media Studies and Art History (EMSAH), the program includes a thoughtful and complementary line-up of narrative, documentary and experimental film.

31 May – 17 August 2014

Between 1950 and 1972, galleries run by Brian Johnstone were Brisbane’s foremost forums for contemporary Australian art; Marodian Gallery (1950–1952), and The Johnstone Gallery run with his wife Marjorie (1952–1972), represented an impressive range of Australian artists. The Johnstone Gallery was arguably Australia’s most famous commercial gallery at that time, exhibiting the works of Charles Blackman, Arthur Boyd, Ray Crooke, Lawrence Daws, Donald Friend, Sidney Nolan and Margaret Olley, among others. The exhibition comprises artworks shown at The Johnstone Gallery, along with scrapbooks, photographs and other gallery records drawn from The Johnstone Gallery Archive, one of the treasures of the State Library of Queensland’s Australian Library of Art collection.

30 August – 30 November 2014

The year 2014 marks the 500th anniversary of Albrecht Dürer’s engraving Melencolia I 1514. Taking its cue from the engraving, the exhibition explores five centuries of melancholy in art. From the Renaissance onward, melancholy has been invoked as a condition, perspective, and/or mood; melancholy has inhabited figures, objects and landscapes. In addition to Dürer, the international artists include Francisco Goya, Fabien Mérelle, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn, Jusepe Ribera, Odilon Redon and Bill Viola, along with contemporary Australian artists such as Rick Amor, Tony Clark, Destiny Deacon, Bill Henson and Tracey Moffatt. Artworks are drawn from national and state institutions, and regional, university and private collections.

Curator: Dr Andrea Bubenik

Presented in partnership with the UQ Node, ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions (Europe 1100 – 1800).

Saturday 30 August 10.00am – 3.30pmThe Melancholic Imagination: A Continuing Professional Development Seminar
In association with the exhibition Five Centuries of Melancholia, please join us for a program of talks and readings that explore how melancholy has shaped the creative imagination from Dürer’s time to ours. What is melancholy, and how has this emotion been represented in visual art, music, film, theatre and poetry? Is melancholy a private state of mind, or can the term be used more broadly, to indicate a mode of understanding, a way of structuring experience?

Thursday 4 September 2.30pm – 3.30pmHistories of Melancholia panel discussion
This panel of scholars will discuss recent critical approaches to the role of melancholy in art and literature. Chaired by Professor Peter Holbrook, with Dr Andrea Bubenik, A/Prof Rex Butler, and Dr Lisa O’Connell. Presented as part of the 2014 Brisbane Writers Festival.

Sunday 28 September 2.00pm – 3.00pm
The Badinerie Players perform John Dowland’s ‘Seven Lachrimae Pavans’ on original instruments of the baroque period.
Find out more here

Wednesday 22 October 6.00pm
History of Emotions Lecture 2014: Professor Laurinda Dixon A privileged profession: artists and melancholia. Presented in partnership with the UQ Node, ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions (Europe 1100–1800).

Tuesday 25 November 6.00pmBetween the Angel and the Dog: Dürer’s Melancholy Community
Associate Professor Drew Daniel, Department of English, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. Presented by the UQ Node, ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions (Europe 1100–1800).

20 September 2014 – 22 February 2015

Lindy Lee’s work came to prominence in the 1980s and has evolved in tandem with key developments in Australian art, including the turn towards Asia. The first major survey of this artist’s practice, the exhibition explores Lee’s acclaimed early photocopy work, and the work that evolved following her embrace of Buddhism and her Chinese heritage. Also included are recent works in which she employs pyrographic techniques to evoke the infinity of the universe, and compositions comprising flung bronze. Works have been sourced from a range of public and private collections.

A fully illustrated publication accompanies the exhibition and includes essays by Associate Professor Rex Butler, Damian Smith and curator Michele Helmrich, as well as an interview with Lindy Lee conducted by Suhanya Raffel.

Visitor photography (without tripod, flash or zoom lens) is encouraged in this exhibition. Share your visit on social media.

#LindyLee
#UQArtMuseum

Curator: Michele Helmrich

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

Public Programs

Saturday 20 September 12.30– 3.00pm
Zen Buddhist Lindy Lee will conduct a zazen (seated) and a kinhin (walking) meditation session in the exhibition. Visitors are invited to follow and observe the artist, but are requested to remain silent. The meditation session will be preceded by a Q&A with the artist from 12.30 –1.00pm. Presented as part of the UQ Arts and Heritage Day program.